PowerColor R9 290 Review

Tomb Raider

The last of our purely gaming benchmarks, Tomb Raider neatly encapsulates the 290's performance. If we look at the main three we're comparing to, the GTX770, R9 290X and the R9 290 itself we find average frame rates of 61/41, 79/52 and 73/29 respectively. Whilst at the normal resolution the 290 is fine and dandy, a slight bump in the resolution up to 2560 sees the result fall off a cliff, especially when compared to the 290X.

We dont look at other results we look at the results our rig gives us.

I have screenshots for every single result too (that goes for all reviews)

Oh i don't doubt you for a second.

But something is still wrong here. Almost all of your results are well off what i got.

A small example, crysis3 @ 5760x1080 0aa, max setting.I was getting 28fps average, 25fps min on a single card on air.

So what does this mean? Well i don't know exactly.

Mine are now under water, heavily overclocked and in trifire so the results are obviously skewed now.

I defiantly do agree the stock cooler is rubbish and too loud though. Get them under water though and its a very very different story. Exceptional performance (higher than 2x780ti's for $300 less) here in Australia anyway.

But something is still wrong here. Almost all of your results are well off what i got.

A small example, crysis3 @ 5760x1080 0aa, max setting.I was getting 28fps average, 25fps min on a single card on air.

So what does this mean? Well i don't know exactly.

Mine are now under water, heavily overclocked and in trifire so the results are obviously skewed now.

I defiantly do agree the stock cooler is rubbish and too loud though. Get them under water though and its a very very different story. Exceptional performance (higher than 2x780ti's for $300 less) here in Australia anyway.

Bit narrow minded if you think because our results are different we dont get the same results. Youd have to have the exact same game settings and same system to be able to compare dude. THATS why we always use the same rig and the same game settings. Plus we always play the same part of the game too because that can make a huge difference.

But hey Im not going to sit here and explain why you dont understand stuff

Bit narrow minded if you think because our results are different we dont get the same results. Youd have to have the exact same game settings and same system to be able to compare dude. THATS why we always use the same rig and the same game settings. Plus we always play the same part of the game too because that can make a huge difference.

But hey Im not going to sit here and explain why you dont understand stuff

I understand that mate lol Ive been around in this game as long as you have :P

But seriously, something is wrong here. We aren't talking about a few fps or a few anomalies here and there. Everything is out and by large margins.

In general i'm a big fan of yours and have purchased several items based on your very long ass but awesome video's.

But i feel in this case either your card is defective, your test system went spaz, or a driver issue as its so terribly different to everyone else's and not by a few %, but by entire orders of magnitude.

ps. Water cooling literally makes these like different cards, the sooner you bring out a review/video on watercooling them i feel your "ati" audience will appreciate it.

I understand that mate lol Ive been around in this game as long as you have :P

But seriously, something is wrong here. We aren't talking about a few fps or a few anomalies here and there. Everything is out and by large margins.

In general i'm a big fan of yours and have purchased several items based on your very long ass but awesome video's.

But i feel in this case either your card is defective, your test system went spaz, or a driver issue as its so terribly different to everyone else's and not by a few %, but by entire orders of magnitude.

ps. Water cooling literally makes these like different cards, the sooner you bring out a review/video on watercooling them i feel your "ati" audience will appreciate it.

Same with the nVidia varient mate. Thats the problem. Do one and you need to do the other and when you overclock an Nvidia they actually open the gap up further. IMHO the AMD's are not all that when overclocked.

Also the one score you refered to about the 270X being in front is tomb raider - the only game with that TressFX feature - maybe this just works better on the old hardware for now.....

Same with the nVidia varient mate. Thats the problem. Do one and you need to do the other and when you overclock an Nvidia they actually open the gap up further. IMHO the AMD's are not all that when overclocked.

Also the one score you refered to about the 270X being in front is tomb raider - the only game with that TressFX feature - maybe this just works better on the old hardware for now.....

Fair enough. I can only go by the difference it made in mine. We are talking 1290mhz on one, 1280 on the second and 1305 on the third. The difference zero throttling and huge core clocks make is crazy.

Along with near zero noise and 61deg loaded temps. With the waterblocks it worked out the same price as 2 780ti's which won't come close. Yes you can put 780's and the like under water too, but with its stock cooler so good there isn't the same gains to be had for the majority of people.

Fair enough. I can only go by the difference it made in mine. We are talking 1290mhz on one, 1280 on the second and 1305 on the third. The difference zero throttling and huge core clocks make is crazy.

Along with near zero noise and 61deg loaded temps. With the waterblocks it worked out the same price as 2 780ti's which won't come close. Yes you can put 780's and the like under water too, but with its stock cooler so good there isn't the same gains to be had for the majority of people.

I still stand by my decision.

Staying on air? a single 780ti
water? 2x 290's by far

Ive tried clocking this one with 100% fans matey and it just got past 1100mhz before artifacting - Id say youve won the silicone lottery - that or Ive lost

Ive tried clocking this one with 100% fans matey and it just got past 1100mhz before artifacting - Id say youve won the silicone lottery - that or Ive lost

mine are on water, just to be clear.

as you have mentioned, huge overclocks on the stock air cooler are a waste of time. I am a noise freak so i didn't even bother oc'ing it with the stock cooler, just popped it in to make sure they all worked before slapping the water blocks on.

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